


His Children, Every One of Them

by fromstarlighttodust



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Father's Day, Self-Indulgent, Yakov's ridiculous children, i just wanted to write this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-16 14:49:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16088318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fromstarlighttodust/pseuds/fromstarlighttodust
Summary: Yakov is tired, but it doesn't stop him from going to think rink every day to look after all of his ridiculous children. After all, that's what his skaters are, his children. They don't even know that he was carrying this one sided love for each and every one of them.-----"As Yakov got ready for the day, fully aware that he was running a bit late already, he thought about the skaters waiting for him. They perhaps didn’t know it, but every single one of them had a single, important thing in common. Every one was immensely talented in their own right, but that wasn’t the trait they all shared. No, something that no one knew that was mandatory to be one of Yakov’s skaters was they had no one else. Their families had abandoned them in most cases, though a few had lost their parents to accidents or illness as well. They were children that needed someone to love them and by god, Yakov did his best to do just that."





	His Children, Every One of Them

It was a day like any other. Yakov woke up and climbed out of bed, his joints creaking unpleasantly. He sighed as he ran his hand down his face, trying to push away the desire to climb right back into bed and sleep for a few more hours. God, he was tired, but getting up now was worth it. Going to the rink early in the morning was an unfortunate side effect of something infinitely better.

As Yakov got ready for the day, fully aware that he was running a bit late already, he thought about the skaters waiting for him. They perhaps didn’t know it, but every single one of them had a single, important thing in common. Every one was immensely talented in their own right, but that wasn’t the trait they all shared. No, something that no one knew that was mandatory to be one of Yakov’s skaters was they had no one else. Their families had abandoned them in most cases, though a few had lost their parents to accidents or illness as well. They were children that needed someone to love them and by god, Yakov did his best to do just that.

He could remember, when he was young, being one of those skaters, wishing for someone to care for him. To his coach, he was just a piggy bank, someone to earn them a good reputation and money. Yakov’s personal problems weren’t something he could bring to his coach, anything that he had going on in his personal life was to be left outside the rink. He grew up, feeling alone and unloved and swore that he wouldn’t let any other skater feel that way if he could help it. All of his skaters needed a parent, someone to look after them and love them in that way and Yakov had tried to be that for every one of them.

Each and every skater at the rink was like a child to him. His child. He had practically raised them, and despite the fact that some of them thought him harsh, it was because he really truly cared about their well being. He didn’t want to see any of them suffer, see any of them hurt. This was part of the reason that he had accepted Katsuki at his rink without much fuss, because despite the fact that the kid had a loving family who supported him, Vitya didn’t.

Vitya had been one of the ones that Yakov had been the most concerned about. The boy had so much success under his belt, always pushing himself harder, further, but Yakov wasn’t blind. He could see that Vitya was always alone. He could see the skater sinker further and further into depression and Yakov didn’t know how to pull him back. There was only so much he could do, but when Vitya had come back to Russia dragging the Japanese man along with him, Vitya had been smiling for real for the first time in so very long.

No, Katsuki wasn’t one of Yakov’s children, but he had saved one from darkness and Yakov would never be able to express how grateful he was. Letting the kid have rink time was hardly enough of a thank you, if you were to ask Yakov.

Speaking of Katsuki, Yakov noted as he entered the rink, it seemed like all of his skaters were clustered around him, listening with rapt attention to something the normally shy and quiet Japanese man was saying. It was unusual for Katsuki to be even near the center of any attention besides Vitya’s and occasionally Yura’s.

As he approached the group, Katsuki’s eyes flitted to him and he fell silent eerily quickly while the other skaters took notice of Yakov’s presence and all took off in seperate directions as if it had been choreographed. Yakov narrowed his eyes at Katsuki, but Vitya quickly inserted his bright smile between them and pulled Katsuki onto the rink to run through his routines.

Besides that odd occurance in the morning, nothing seemed out of place, so Yakov put it out of his mind. He had other things to worry over, like his looming retirement. He didn’t want to, he knew there were skaters that still needed him, but Yakov wasn’t sure how much longer he could do it. He was tired, more and more so every day and he couldn’t help but think that maybe being the holder of this one sided love might be running him down after all. It was exhausting, looking after all of his infuriating children, but still Yakov couldn’t bring himself to regret the path he had chosen.

It wasn’t until a week later that Yakov found out what that morning meeting had been about. He arrived at the rink early, surprised to find all of his skaters already there. Even the chronically late ones were present. He was even more confused when a cake was presented to him, held out by a grumpy looking Yura who seemed to be trying to look like he didn’t care, even though his eyes kept shooting to Yakov’s face to gauge his reaction.

In the center of the cake, piped in green icing, was the English words ‘Happy Father’s Day’. Around it in Russian, were the signatures of every one of his skaters. Off in the bottom left corner was some Japanese writing that Yakov could only assume was Katsuki’s name, as well.

“What is this?” Yakov asked gruffly, trying to hide his confusion.

“You see, Yuuri was telling us about this tradition he heard about while he was studying in America,” Vitya started.

“It’s called father’s day and it’s when you honor your father figure,” Yura interrupted, talking quickly and rolling his eyes as Vitya pouted at him.

“We just thought it would be nice to honor the closest thing to a father any of us has had,” Mila added. “And Yuuri signed it, too, because it was his idea.”

Katsuki blushed and looked down at the floor, scuffing his sneaker as the attention on the room turned to him momentarily. Vitya was the one to draw it all back to Yakov. He smiled, a true, genuine smile and demonstrated some of that maturity he seemed to have learned from having Katsuki around. “You’ve looked after all of us for so long, Yakov. You opened your home to us, treated us like we were your own and even though some of us have grown up and moved out, you’re an irreplaceable part of out pasts. You’re the parent we needed, but probably didn’t deserve.”

Yakov felt tears welling in his eyes and he turned quickly, retreating to his office. As he went, he heard one of the younger skaters whisper, “Did we make him angry?”

And Georgi’s voice responded, warmth in it. “No, he’s just too happy to know what to do right now. That’s just how he is.”

Once the office door was closed, Yakov burst into tears. They knew. They understood. At some point, all of his children had realized their uniting factor. Yakov was blown away by the love he had seen on each and every one of their faces. He took a deep, steadying breath, suddenly feeling less tired than he had in years.

Heading back out to the rink he barked at his skaters, his children, who were all still milling around. “What are you all doing? Get to work!”

They all jumped into action, heading in different directions like that morning a week ago. The difference today is Yakov’s yelling seemed to be less intense today and during their breaks, every skater received a quick hug and a slice of cake that Yakov ate with them. Even Katsuki.

The next day, when Yakov saw a picture of his own surprised face surrounded by cake and all his skaters turn up on Instagram, he printed it out and carried it with him in his wallet. After all, every parent needed to carry a picture of their children, didn’t they?

No one commented on the fact that a cake would appear every third Sunday in June with the same green words piped onto it. No one commented on the fact that Yakov teared up every time he saw it. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t important, because now everyone knew that he wasn’t just their coach, he was their father in every way that was important. That was all that mattered.


End file.
